On a Naga Food Trail with Chel Aal

A Naga food fest in Hyderabad with Chef Alistair Lethorn from Goa. The fest is at The Park

Chef Alistar Lethorn, from Dimapur, Nagaland had to choose between his corporate life and his passion for food. He chose passion, but not before giving the corporate life a go. Chef Alistair aka Aal is at The Park for Naga Culinary Trails pop upwhere he is showcasing some classic Naga dishes along side some fusion food.

Aal’s passion for cooking started from his home kitchen in Dimapur, Nagaland. Alistair says, “I started cooking at the age of 17 years out of sheer love for food. I would cook at home for friends and family. Of course I started off with what I grew up seeing and eating. Gradually I started to tweak the regular dishes and everyone loved it. After I moved to Delhi to work in the corporate sector, I opened a Naga restaurant. When maintaining both the restaurant and the regular job was getting difficult for me, I chose to keep the corporate life for the money and sold my restaurant in 2009. However, I continued to dream about a place that celebrates food from the Northeast, especially from Nagaland.”

While Alistair lived the corporate life, he did not let the chef in him die; he continued to work on dishes, and experimented at home . After working for over 9 years in the corporate sector he set out to become a chef with a mission. “The mission being an appropriate presentation of Naga food and to break stereotype notions,” he says.

He started promoting Naga food with pop ups. In search of a wider audience for the food he was putting out, he moved to Goa in 2017. There, he started Aal’s Kitchen: Naga Bar and Kitchen at Vagator, Goa. The floating expat and tourist crowd would be more open to his food, especially because of the kind of herbs and fermented ingredients that are used in Naga cuisine, he felt. Alistair says, “Dried fish, fermented fish, fermented bean paste and bamboo shoot, smoked fish and meats etc are commonly used ingredients. The response has always been good because food from the Northeast region is not common nor is it showcased much. While I champion Naga food and from other regions of Northeast, I keep the flavours mild. The idea of to make people appreciate it and and not turn them away from it.”

For the fest at The Park, while Alistair has used smoked meats (pork and buffalo) from his restaurant in Goa, he will also use ingredients sourced from Nagaland and Manipur.

Some of the dishes to try are Smoked chilli tofu, Stir fried vegetables with axone, bitter brinjals in bamboo shoots, baked potatoes with spinach and axone sauce, banana leaf baked fish in michinga (a fragrant herb), smoked tuna and creme cheese, chicken in mango ginger, pickled buff in Naga ginger, Pork in fermented bamboo shoots, Portobello mushroom in Michinga and tenga (sour) powder and a lot more.

The menu for the Naga Culinary Trails has been designed to seamlessly merge traditional recipes with modern culinary techniques. Aal’s food promises long-lasting flavours orchestrated through the harmony of meat, vegetables, rice, and a medley of aromatic herbs. Not to forget the famous Naga ghost chili chutneys. Aal is set to introduce the city to the rich flavours and distinctive spices of Nagaland’s culinary heritage.